Department for Transport

Manston Airport: Large Goods Vehicles

lord pendry: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Vere of Norbiton on 24 July (HL6859),how much they have spent on preparations for the provision of additional lorry parking capacity at Manston Airport.

baroness vere of norbiton: I can confirm that between August 2015 to June 2020, the Department for Transport (DfT) has paid a total of £19.4m for the use of Manston Airfield as a lorry park. DfT paid £10.3m as part of the EU Exit no deal preparation contingency planning and £9.1m for the use of Manston Airfield for business as usual and Operation Stack. This has enabled DfT to use Manston Airfield to hold HGVs for traffic management purposes, in the event of disruption of flow at the short straits crossings.

Department for International Development

Overseas Aid

lord chidgey: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the letter from the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of 22 July regarding Official Development Assistance, (1) what analysis and evaluation techniques will be deployed in prioritising the various streams of development projects across the Sustainable Development Goals spectrum, and (2) what measures will be taken to establish the non-recoverable costs of cancelled or reduced programmes as a result of (a) the reduction in funding, (b) the impact of COVID-19, and (c) the merger of the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

baroness sugg: DFID’s evaluation approach is underpinned by the principles of transparency, rigour and independence, achieved with skilled analytical staff that have a deep and extensive evaluation experience.Every DFID programme is subject to an annual review which looks at the performance of partners and DFID, including consideration of Value for Money. These reviews are published. Controls are in place to ensure that costs will be identified and recorded in line with Managing Public Money, including where necessary any write-offs or losses. The anticipated decline in GNI and hence ODA, the impact of covid-19, alongside all other key issues will be disclosed as necessary within the department’s 2020/21 Governance Statement.We will continue to look at how money can be spent most effectively against our priorities, including through the Integrated Review, and the Spending Review – both of which will inform the priorities of the new Department.

South Sudan: Mental Health Services

the earl of sandwich: To ask Her Majesty's Government what fundingthey have allocated for mental health programmes in South Sudan.

baroness sugg: The UK is the leading provider of health services in South Sudan, through the Health Pooled Fund (HPF) (£175m 2018-2023). Through the HPF, UK Aid is improving capacity to identify and manage mental health illnesses in health facilities and hospitals; last year HPF trained 412 health workers on mental health across South Sudan.UK Aid is also supporting specialised mental health services in areas heavily impacted by violence, through our partnerships with Humanity and Inclusion (£3.7m 2018-2021) and Medair (£16m 2016-2021). We also provide psycho-social support to survivors of gender-based violence as part of a five-year £22 million programme with the International Medical Corps. Finally, UK Aid is working in partnership with the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to provide mental health and psychosocial services in protection of civilian sites, with services targeted particularly at vulnerable groups including women and girls.

Ministry of Justice

Offenders: Females

the lord bishop of gloucester: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they estimate the Female Offender Strategy will be fully implemented.

lord keen of elie: The Female Offender Strategy (2018) set out our vision to see fewer women entering the justice system and reoffending; fewer women in custody, particularly on short custodial sentences, with more managed successfully in the community; and a custodial environment that enables rehabilitation. The strategy launched an ambitious programme of work to improve outcomes for female offenders and make society safer by tackling the underlying causes of offending and reoffending. This will take several years to deliver, with our planned pilot of a residential women’s centre in at least five sites in England and Wales likely to last until the latter part of this decade.Some two years on from publication of the Strategy we are making good progress. We have already invested £5.1 million Strategy funding in 30 different women’s services across England and Wales, helping to sustain and enhance existing services, fill gaps in provision, and provide properties for new women’s centres. Other achievements include publication of a new Women’s Policy Framework; roll-out of new training for staff working with women in custody and the community; improvements to the preparation of pre-sentence reports; publication and ongoing implementation of the recommendations in Lord Farmer’s review into family ties for female offenders; undertaken a review of police forces’ responses to our guidance on working with vulnerable women; piloting a new offender management model for women under supervision in the community; commissioning research to inform our policy on BAME female offenders; and publication of our review of the operational policy on Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units, and Mothers separated from children under the age of 2 in prison.On 5 May 2020, we announced the investment of a further £2.5m in women’s community services in England and Wales in 2020/21, supporting them to tackle the root causes of offending and help women to turn their lives around. We also announced that the first site of our residential women’s centre pilot will be located in Wales. This will provide accommodation for vulnerable women with complex needs who would otherwise be sentenced to custody, enabling them to stay closer to home and maintain important family ties, and will directly tackle the issues which often underlie offending, like substance misuse and mental health. We will now work with Welsh Government and partners in Wales to identify a provider and site.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Haftom Zarhum

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that the decision by the Beersheba District Court to acquit two security officers of causing injury with grave intent in relation to the death ofHaftom Zarhum, an Eritrean asylum seeker, was because the judge considered it reasonable for the defendants to have mistaken the deceased for a Palestinian terrorist.

baroness sugg: We have not made an assessment of these reports.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Pesticides: Trade Agreements

lord kennedy of southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that there will be no change to current pesticides protections resulting from any trade deals negotiated; and what plans they have to ensure that pesticides that are currently banned from use in the UK will remainso.

lord goldsmith of richmond park: We will maintain our high human health and environmental standards when operating our own independent pesticides regulatory regime, after the Transition Period. We will ensure decisions on the use of pesticides are based on careful scientific assessment and will not authorise pesticides that may carry unacceptable risks. The statutory requirements of the EU regime on standards of protection will be carried across unchanged into domestic law. Decisions on standards are a matter for the UK and will be made separately from any Free Trade Agreement. This Government stood on a clear manifesto commitment that in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards. The Government will stand firm in trade negotiations to ensure any future trade deals live up to the values of farmers and consumers across the UK. We will not lower our standards nor put the UK’s biosecurity at risk as we negotiate new trade deals.

Plastics: Seas and Oceans

lord pendry: To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the amount of ocean plastic debris globally; and what steps they are taking to prevent any increase in the volume of plastic waste entering oceans, in particular as a result of discarded face masks used during the COVID-19 pandemic.

lord goldsmith of richmond park: In 2017, the Government published its ‘Future of the Sea: plastic pollution’ report which supported the estimate that between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean globally each year. The Government has introduced a ban on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products and a charge on single-use carrier bags. From October there will be a ban on the supply of plastic straws, cotton buds, and stirrers, with exemptions, and the Environment Bill includes powers to charge for single-use plastic items. The Government has not carried out an assessment of the environmental impact of the disposal of single-use face masks. Waste management, including disposal, is regulated through the environmental permitting system in England, which seeks to protect the environment and human health. The latest Government advice on face coverings is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering